I’ve defended John McCain as a conservative, albeit one with more frequent moderate deviations than I and most conservatives would like. My defense is partly based on the fact that his record is, in fact, substantially conservative, but also because his opposition (whether Obama or Clinton) is demonstrably ultra liberal. My research on campaigns indicates that party unity BEFORE the conventions is very important to the success of the presidential candidate. So, early Republican Party unity is extremely important to defeating Obama or Clinton, and this is a result devoutly to be wished by conservatives of any stripe.

So, as much as I think that the conservative talk show crowd has been wrong-headed and short-sighted in their relentless attacks on Senator McCain, I also think that the goody-good Senator from Arizona has not helped himself on this score–and continued bad behavior could well cost him the election.

McCain made a big mistake on Tuesday when he repudiated and apologized for Bill Cunningham’s (the Cincinnati conservative talk show host) anti-Obama remarks in a warm-up to a McCain appearance. From what I heard, Cunningham’s remarks were tough but were not over the line and certainly well short of the outrageous things that many liberals say about President Bush all the time. Cunningham referred to Senator Obama several times using his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, said he thought Obama was in the Chicago Democratic “hack” tradition, and ridiculed Obama’s position that he would sit down and talk with any dictator without preconditions.

Harsh perhaps, but it doesn’t seem to be outrageous to me. If there is anything that is untrue here, it ought to be rebutted, but that is what a campaign is about. And the guy’s middle name is, in fact, Hussein. If he thinks that its unfair to use his name, he should change it. If you are a politician seeking national office, I’d recommend changing your middle name if it is Osama, Adolf, Fidel, Ho Chi Minh, Mao, Ayatolahh, Mussolini, Amin, Attila, or Hussein–either that or get used to people using it and most likely not in your favor.

Senator McCain’s response to Cunningham’s remarks was overkill – big time. McCain said that “Whatever suggestion that was made that was any way disparaging to the integrity, character, honesty of either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton was wrong.” He said, “I condemn it, and if I have any responsibility, I will take the responsibility, and I apologize for it.” Cunningham later said that McCain threw him under the straight-talk express bus and he is right. McCain’s apology will be read by many conservatives as confirmation that he is not one of them and will run a weak campaign. Instead of defending conservatives, he runs to the aid of his Senate club members. This is a real problem for the McCain candidacy and he threw oil on the fire yesterday.

McCain should have said that he would not have said some of what Cunningham said, that he would like to keep the campaign at a higher level, but that he cannot control what some of his supporters say. Instead, by repudiating Cunningham’s remarks he took a slap at some of his own supporters. You don’t win elections that way.

A “big tent” Republican Party just doesn’t mean that there is room for moderate conservatives like McCain, but that there is room for tough conservatives like Cunningham as well. If McCain wants the tough conservatives to cut him some slack, he has to be willing to reciprocate. If he does not learn this lesson quickly – that you can have your integrity and be a smart politician at the same time – this is going to be a particularly long campaign followed by a Barack Hussein Obama inauguration as our 44th president.